Not the best day: Baron Davis leaves the Warriors

Well at least it was fast, far from painless but at least fast.

Less then 24 hours after Baron Davis opted out of the final year of his contract with the Warriors, the LA Times is reporting that he has signed a 5-year deal with the LA Clippers for $65 million.

This ends one of the most exciting (though short) eras in Warrior’s basketball history, in essence ripping the heart out of a team that won 48 games last season. It seems that Baron was more affronted by Nellie’s treatment of him and the offers Mullin extended than most realized or perhaps wanted to realize.

What makes this so bad is that his contract is just not that big. Over $14 mil per year would have been excessive, but $13 million is in an acceptable range.

The five years seems a bit long but for it to benefit the Dubs he really needs to be effective for only three seasons (the last two he becomes a trade chip as an expiring contract) and that is not out of the realm of possibility.

This move brings up, first, a question, and then the bitter rumors that inevitably spread after events like this. The question is, would Baron have taken the same deal to stay in Oakland or was he so hurt/interested in a title that he would have asked more from Mullin? And, as soon as the news broke, unsavory grumblings began about collusion between Baron and the Clippers. There is probably no truth to these rumors but many fans will still cling to them.

As for the Warriors themselves the future very suddenly became now. If the rumors are true, Brand will be re-signing with LA. Corey Maggette could be a catch if the Dubs act quickly (read: sign him out of spite) but his lack of defense could be a small issue.

After that however the free agent class grows very thin. There are a number of nice, restricted free agents (Iguodala, Josh Smith, Okafor, Deng), but it remains to be seen if the Warriors can offer enough to not be matched, and if any of them are worth the money they would demand.

At the moment the Warriors have eight players guaranteed to be under cap hold or contract, as well as the remnants of Foyle’s contract. They could re-sign Azubuike (likely), Pietrus (very unlikely) or Matt Barnes (though Nellie said that he won’t return), but none of those would help that much. This will leave the team with a ton of cap room but that is little consolation to the fans.

The new questions become, “can Monta run the point?” and if he can’t, who can Mullin get to do it? It’s too soon to start bad mouthing Baron’s shooting and attitude, maybe in a few days, but not now.

Mullin now will also need to ramp up his attempts to re-sign Monta and Andris. Losing Baron and one of them would basically sink this franchise entirely for the next year. The roster, which will be filled out in some way, is now supremely young and untested but presents fans with a great unknown.

We’ll have to see what unfolds on all these fronts but the team that comes out of the tunnel opening night will surely bear little resemblance to the one that did one year ago.

"We Believe" seems very long ago as fans are now left only with the choice of whether to direct their acrimony at Baron himself, or at the management that could not keep him in Oakland.

There is little solace in that choice, but it is really all that’s left.